The interior designer Robert Stilin relishes a good project, and one of his favorites has been his own house — a 5,000-square-foot, L-shaped residence in East Hampton, N.Y., that he helped design and outfitted in rustic modern décor. He proudly showcases the property in a recent book on interiors.
“It has a depth and warmth to it,” said Mr. Stilin, who raised his son, Dylan, there as a single father and frequently entertained clients and friends. “This house I layered with 18 years of life experience and travel. I took the past and mixed it with the present.”
Building materials were carefully chosen. The wainscoting inside is maple and the shiplap walls poplar, while ash used for the ceilings and floors came from the Stilin family’s lumber company in Mellen, Wis. The layout, too, was planned so that most rooms look out on the secluded backyard.
So why, then, is he looking to sell? He’s ready for another Hamptons project, he said, and the chance “to do something that sounds fun, compelling and interesting. This is what I do for a living and it’s fun to create a new place.”
Of course, a strong real estate market in the Hamptons also weighed in his decision. The median sales price for the third quarter, at $1.2 million, was a 40 percent increase from the same time last year and was a record high for the 15 years that Douglas Elliman has been tracking sales.
The house, on 0.87 acres at 331 Georgica Road, just off the Montauk Highway on Eastern Long Island, is being listed for $6 million, according to Dana Trotter of Sotheby’s International Realty, who is marketing the property. Annual property taxes are $24,700.
The two-story structure, with five bedrooms and five and a half baths, was designed by the noted Hamptons architect Frank Greenwald and completed in 2003. It is essentially two connected buildings totaling 5,030 square feet. The main, wood-shingled part contains most of the communal space and bedrooms. A smaller, perpendicular wing, which Mr. Stilin calls “the barn,” has guest quarters, a media room/bedroom, as well as a separate entry and patios; its exterior has board-and-batten siding and is topped by a standing-seam metal roof.
“I’m a very private person but I’m also very social,” Mr. Stilin said, noting that the home’s layout managed to accommodate both the need to entertain and for quiet time. “All the different sleeping spaces are their own destination for privacy.”
The house is entered through a courtyard with a fountain of bluestone, stucco and brass, one of two on the property. The main door opens to a mudroom/foyer, with a hallway leading into the kitchen, dining area and a powder room. The kitchen includes a large pantry and is equipped with Carrara marble counters, a butcher block island and espresso-brown wood cabinets, while the roomy dining area has built-in bookcases.
French doors open to the living room, which is anchored with a wood-burning fireplace, and beyond that space, a guest bedroom with an en-suite bathroom. All three rooms connect to the backyard’s expansive bluestone patio, which has an outdoor fireplace and fountain overlooking a 12-by-36-foot pool. Throughout the property are mature trees and plantings, and there is also an attached garage.
Upstairs is a library with another wood-burning fireplace, an office and two spacious bedrooms, each with an en-suite bath and plenty of closet space.
The “barn” wing has a media room/bedroom with a full bath and two private patios on the lower level, and upstairs is a bedroom, sitting room and another full bath.
Mr. Stilin has been designing residential interiors around the country for the last three decades, though he is probably best known for his laid-back Hamptons aesthetic. The rooms in his house — featuring a mix of vintage and contemporary furnishings, including some he designed, and various photographs — are among 15 projects featured in his monograph, “Robert Stilin: Interiors” (Vendome Press, 2019).
One of his favorite rooms in the house, besides his own bedroom, he said, is the living room. “I love sitting by the fireplace and having a glass of wine and listening to music and chilling out,” he said.
Most of his time, though, is spent in Manhattan these days, where he has a SoHo apartment, now his main residence, as well as offices and a showroom. (He closed his East Hampton shop last year.)
But he’s not saying goodbye to the Hamptons. He plans to eventually build another home there. “I’m not leaving the Hamptons,” Mr. Stilin said. “It’s been a huge part of my life.”
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